tlug: Re: rpms

[Mike Fabian <mike.fabian@example.com>]

Jonathan Byrne <j-byrne@example.com> writes:

> My practice is generally not use RPMs, except those that come with
> the distro CD.  I prefer source tarballs, which all get installed
> in /usr/local/.

I do the same, but I don't install the stuff compiled from source in
/usr/local but rather in /opt/stow/name-of-program+version-number.
The command

   /opt/stow$ stow name-of-program+version-number

then creates symbolic links of everything below the
/opt/stow/name-of-program+version-number directory to the /opt
directory. This way all binaries are in /opt/bin, libraries in
/opt/lib and so on. Because the symbolic links to a package can easily
be removed with

   /opt/stow$ stow -D name-of-program+version-number

it is very easy to uninstall a program again or experiment with
different versions.

Sometimes a little manual tweaking is necessary after installing a
program in its directory below /opt/stow, for example several programs
come with a `dir' file in their `info' directory, but stow can only
create one symbolic link for /opt/stow/info/dir. But usually only very
little conflict resolution of that sort is necessary, overall I think
using `stow' is easier and faster than building your own rpms.

And it is not as messy as installing everything to /usr/local.

-- 
Mike Fabian   <mike.fabian@example.com>

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